St. Lucia Jazz Festival

May is dedicated to the cool tones and smooth rhythm of the Jazz Festival. A festival started mainly to boost the tourism industry has now become a major event in the festival calendar of the island nation. Both jazz music and tourists fill the island to attend a festival that is a careful mix of Acoustical and Fusion Jazz.

This festival has become an outlet for local expressions.  Along side it improves the economic opportunities and paves way for the necessary infrastructure for event productions. The festival offers a good variety of entertainment ranging from formal music performances to open air picnic style events and late night clubs.

The Jazz festival of St.Lucia is considered by the press and patrons as the “Premiere Jazz Festival” of the Caribbean region. The festival experts rate this among the top three festivals of the world.

Called affectionately as “The fringe activities “, the additions to the main stage activities offer the local public to participate in other jazz performances free of charge. This creates a more festive atmosphere and the festival is celebrated even in the villages like Laborie and the towns of Vieux Fort and Soufriere.

The tourism board of St.Lucia is considering the lengthening of the Festival period which will increase the number of shows and ticket prices. It is the hope of St.Lucians to make this festival more popular and take a prominent place in the Jazz world as done by Montreaux.

St.Lucians are proud that in a region where music festivals cannot be sustained for years, the tiny island nation is celebrating the festival for more than a decade. St.Lucia Jazz has now become an internationally recognized brand. A classic example being “Being Cool…” is used in the advertising campaign used by the soft drink giant Coca Co